So how did I not know about this place before?

Spring is a season of revival. As such, it's time I revived the Batter's Box Trivia Challenge.

Apropos of some writing I’m doing for another Web site, I have been skating through last year’s statistics. While it’s always best to look forward, the past is unavoidable when you’re preparing for the new season. Re-hashing the previous season’s numbers is always a re-learning experience for me; it’s astonishing how much I forget from October to February.

Some notable failed recollections:

A few days ago in Jonny German's Spring Training '05 report called "Pitcher This," Batter's Box regular jsoh wrote, "I'm desperately hoping for Spike Lundberg to make the team ... he's got a name to die for. Come on. Spike. Lundberg. Can't you just hear Murray Eldon announcing him? Tickets for the Spike Lundberg bandwagon are on sale at the door."

Sounds like it's time for the another edition of "Ask Spike," as the new Jay hurler stopped by Batter's Box for an interview and to take questions back in mid-November, and he returns now to do so again.

I've been listening to Tom Cheek on the radio as long as I can remember. He's an integral part of my childhood and teenage memories. When someone says "baseball", I think of Tom Cheek. I have to get that out of the way off the top before someone accuses me of being a homer -- when it comes to Tom Cheek, hell yes, I am a homer.

Here we go, with our standard "Hall of Names" companion piece to Mike Green's current Hall Watch profile, this one of Frank "Bat-Man" Thomas' sidekick, Robin Ventura.

It seems remarkable, but only four men in the history of the game have been named "Robin" -- and if Ventura ever enters the Hall of Fame (unlikely, but obviously at least worth discussing, or we wouldn't be here) that means three of the four Robins will be enshrined in Cooperstown. Ventura would join Robin Roberts and Robin Yount in The Hall, leaving former Cubs/A's/Rockies/Reds outfielder Robin Jennings wondering just what the hell happened.

But no, even with two current Hall of Famers, there's no "Rockin' Robin" team to be built. So do we go with the 21 guys with the initials "RV" for an "All-Big-Rig" team? Uh, no. How about guys like Ventura who share a name with a famous highway? Unlikely at best. But wait ... read through that Mike Green Hall Watch piece again. See the comparison of Ventura to Ron Cey? An idea takes flight ...

Robin Ventura is a 6 time Gold-Glove winning third baseman and a fine hitter. That normally isn't enough for the Hall, and it probably won't do for Ventura, but I thought that it would be fun to recap his career and remember some other fine third basemen who are just outside the Hall. Ventura hit .243/.337/.362 in 152 ABs for the Dodgers in 2004 at age 36. His career does seem to be winding down.

The Blue Jays will be selecting 6th in the 2005 Draft next summer. Some of the top candidates the Jays may select were discussed previously.

Previously, Mike Moffatt looked at the history of the 6th pick in the draft going back until 1965.

While the Jays will be selecting 6th in the draft I wanted to take a broader look at the players selected in previous drafts. So I went back, using The Baseball Cube as a resource, and looked at the players drafted from pick 6 through pick 15 from the ten drafts in the 90s.

If you're one of our U.S. visitors, hopefully you're enjoying a nice day off, and we thank you for spending some time with us. But if you're old enough, probably you remember the glory days when Lincoln's b-day and Washington's b-day were celebrated as separate holidays. Merge them into one? What an outrage! Imagine your parents deciding to celebrate you and your sister's b-day on the same day.

The Blue Jays announced that they'll have $210 million to spend on player salaries from 2005-2007. Here's a look at the projected team for each of those years.

Welcome to the inaugural Photo of the Week. Until the season gets going I'll be recycling material from last year, some of which has not yet been seen by anyone but me.

Next year I'm hoping that we'll have enough money in the budget to send me down to Florida for Spring Training to really do this feature right, but in the meantime you're just going to have to deal with leftovers.

Spring Training has started down in Florida and Arizona, and now seems like a good time to introduce you to those who will be making their debut in 2005.

Quick, what's the first thing you think of when you hear the words "spring training"? I bet it isn't "Charles Dickens." Well, in truth it's not my first thought either, but let's pretend it is. And no, I'm not thinking about Great Expectations, but about a well-known opening line to another Dickens tale: "It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times . . . you stupid monkeys!"

Spring Training officially gets underway for the Blue Jays today, with pitchers and catchers reporting to the Bobby Mattick Training Center at Englebert Complex in Dunedin, Florida. Four starting pitchers are guaranteed to make the 25-man roster, barring injury, as are five of a possible 6 or 7 relievers.

Chipper Jones had his worst season in 2004 since his rookie campaign. His 2004 age 32 line was .248/.362/.485. A touchy hammy probably contributed mightily to his sub-par results. It did however continue a 4 year pattern of decline for Chipper, which he must reverse, if he intends to get the plaque in Cooperstown that seemed to be already inscribed for him in 2000.